El Paso - Daniela Medrano

I woke up extra early one morning while we were in El Paso. I headed south from Casa Puente, thinking I’d eventually hit the border wall. Instead I found myself in front of Cesar Chavez highway staring at cargo trains pass along the border of El Paso and Juarez.

It was an odd sight since I was getting used to seeing high walls and fences. As my curiosity took me further, I came across El Centro de Trabajadores Agricolas (day labor center). There were men sleeping on the ground and others drinking and talking amongst themselves. I met Ruben, a man who had no shame in letting me know he was an alcoholic. “Soy alcoholico pero muy trabajador”, he said. Him and four other men were sitting and talking together, waiting to enter the center in order to shower and eat a warm meal before getting picked up to work. Ruben pointed to my Chicago Bulls sweater and asked if I was from the same place as Michael Jordan. I confirmed that I was from Chicago and that it was my first time in El Paso. He asked the question I always dread answering, “y que estas haciendo aqui?” I told him I was part of “el programa de estudios fronterizos” and before I could explain what the Border Studies Program was, the four men he was sitting with began to run away.

I was really confused and unsure if I should run after them to try to explain that I wasn’t the migra. Fortunately, Ruben hadn’t run away from me and explained that he had a work permit but the other men did not. He also made sure to tell me that if he hadn’t had a permit, he might have also run away from me. It was 6 in the morning, a time most people are still sleeping and somehow a 5 foot tall girl managed to scare away 4 grown men with the mere mention of the border.

Being undocumented in America, not just in El Paso is a fear people have to constantly live with. I can’t imagine adding the fear of deportation to all the other fears society imposes on us. People shouldn’t have to be afraid to go to work, walk down the street, or drive their car. The criminalization of undocumented immigrants is a psychological form of structural violence and it’s almost humorous to think that a train track divides the most dangerous city in the world and one of the “safest” cities in the United States.

Who is “safe” in El Paso? Clearly undocumented people in El Paso do not feel safe. So how can any city in The United States call itself safe when large populations within it live in fear every day?